Did you know that children as young as 14 may have been trafficked to make the cotton you’re wearing?

Under the Sumangali scheme, over 200,000 unmarried women and girls aged between 14-23 years are trafficked to work in spinning, weaving and dyeing mills, in the Tamil Nadu Region of India. The workers suffer long working hours, hazardous conditions, physical and sexual abuse, with only 35% ever receiving payment. Women and girls suffer injuries, one young girl had 4kg of cotton pumped from her stomach.1

Will you pledge to do something to stop this?

The Modern Slavery Bill is currently going through Parliament. Supply chain transparency is an important part of this and we want to ensure that this isn’t cut from the conversation. We’ve been inspired by Stop The Traffik’s Fashion Protocol – and we too want to see clothing retailers pledge that they will ensure:

Transparency

Within 6 months publish a 3-5 year plan to trace supply chains.

Contracts

Insist that all suppliers used have contracts with ALL employees, so that child labour and trafficking isn’t an option.

Auditing

Independent, unannounced, and offsite inspections to assess working practices.

We simply want to be able to choose traffick-free clothing on the high street.

Sign the Petition

The petition has now closed and was handed to Caroline Bradley MP in November 2014

Take the pledge

We’re asking retailers to make this pledge, but we too will pledge the same thing. I pledge, you pledge. This starts with your next buy. Simply commit to buying your next item more ethically than your last.

Here are some ideas of contracts you could make:

#mynextbuy will be Fairtrade.

#mynextbuy will be from a charity shop.

#mynextbuy won’t be for another year.

With #mynextbuy I will give away another item of clothing I own.

Human trafficking thrives when there is silence. Once you’ve decided what your pledge will be, tell all your friends and favourite retailers using the hashtag #mynextbuy – and explain why you’re doing it!